House of Lords report sets out opposition to controversial European court
ruling which gave individuals an opportunity to have links deleted

The so-called “right to be forgotten” which was controversially backed by European Union judges is “unworkable and wrong”, a House of Lords committee has ruled in a new report.

Peers also found the court’s decision – which has given members of the public the opportunity to have “irrelevant” results deleted from search engines such as Google – was based on out-dated principles.

It was a mistake to assume the “right to be forgotten” even exists in law, concluded the House of Lords home affairs, health and education EU sub-committee.

A report said the Court of Justice of the European Union had based its decision on a directive drawn up in 1995, three years before Google was even founded.

Baroness Prashar, the committee chairman, said: “We … do not believe that individuals should have a right to have links to accurate and lawfully available information about them removed, simply because they do not like what is said.”

“It does not take into account the effect the ruling will have on smaller search engines which, unlike Google, are unlikely to have the resources to process the thousands of removal requests they are likely to receive.

“We also believe that it is wrong in principle to leave search engines themselves the task of deciding whether to delete information or not, based on vague, ambiguous and unhelpful criteria.”

There had been “incredible advancement in technology” since the 1995 directive at the heart of the ruling, she added.

The search giant said the French had submitted 17,500 requests relating to 58,000 websites, the Germans 16,500 relating to 57,000 with the British making up the third largest group, with 12,000 requests relating to 44,000 sites.

More than half of requests are granted.

The court ruling, in May, said individuals could apply to have links deleted to “inadequate”, “irrelevant” or “no longer relevant” search.

The judgment applies only to the removal of a search engine link rather than the deletion of the information itself.